Joachim Radkau (born October 4, 1943) is a German historian.

Life

Radkau was born in Oberlübbe, now Hille, Landkreis

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the largest town in population between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district () of Minden-Lübbecke, situated in the cultural region ...

. Son of a Protestant priest, he studied history in

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

(Freie Universität) and

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

from 1963 to 1968. He was influenced e.g. by Fritz Fischer. His doctorate, which he earned in 1970, treated the role of German immigrants 1933-45 on

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

. From 1971 on he started to teach at

Bielefeld University Bielefeld University () is a public university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization and teaching than the e ...

. 1972 till 1974 Radkau wrote together with George W. F. Hallgarten a synopsis of German industry and politics. His views about the role of Hermann Josef Abs in German negotiations with Israel led to legal claim of

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

. In 1980 Radkau received the venia legendi for his study of the rise and crisis of the German nuclear industry.

History of technology The history of technology is the history of the invention of tools and techniques by humans. Technology includes methods ranging from simple stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and information technology that has emerged since the 19 ...

and

Environmental history Environmental history is the study of Human impact on the environment, human interaction with the natural world over time, emphasising the active role nature plays in influencing human affairs and vice versa. Environmental history first emerged ...

are favorite topics of Radkau. Besides forestry and the role of environmental protection in the German history, including the Third Reich, Radkau researched as well the relation between Nervosität (

Anxiety Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...

) and technical development in the German Empire, adding biographical studies about

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

and

Max Weber Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economy, political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sc ...

Awards and honors

*2009: World History Association Book Prize, ''Nature and Power''

Bibliography

* Die deutsche Emigration in den USA. Ihr Einfluß auf die amerikanische Europapolitik 1933-1945. Düsseldorf 1971, * Zus. mit George W. F. Hallgarten: Deutsche Industrie und Politik von Bismarck bis heute. Frankfurt/Köln 1974, * Zus. mit

Imanuel Geiss Imanuel Geiss (9 February 1931 – 20 February 2012) was a German historian. Life Imanuel Geiss was born in Frankfurt am Main, the youngest of the five children of a working-class family affected by the economic crisis. His unemployed fath ...

(Hrsg.): Imperialismus im 20. Jahrhundert. Gedenkschrift für George W. F. Hallgarten. München 1976, * Aufstieg und Krise der deutschen Atomwirtschaft 1945-1975. Verdrängte Alternativen in der Kerntechnik und der Ursprung der nuklearen Kontroverse. Reinbek 1983, * Zus. mit Ingrid Schäfer: Holz - Ein Naturstoff in der Technikgeschichte. Reinbek 1987, * Technik in Deutschland. Vom 18. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Frankfurt/M. 1989, * Das Zeitalter der Nervosität. Deutschland zwischen Bismarck und Hitler. München 1998, * Natur und Macht. Eine Weltgeschichte der Umwelt. München 2000, * Nature and Power: A Global History of the Environment. By Joachim Radkau. Publications of the German Historical Institute Series. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008 * Mensch und Natur in der Geschichte. Leipzig 2002 (Politische Weltkunde, Arbeitsbuch für die Sekundarstufe II) * *

. Die Leidenschaft des Denkens. München 2005, *Aufstieg und Fall der deutschen Atomwirtschaft, with Lothar Hahn (2013).

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Radkau, Joachim 1943 births Living people 20th-century German historians German male non-fiction writers Academic staff of Bielefeld University Environmental historians Historians of technology 21st-century German historians People from Minden-Lübbecke Max Weber scholars